1) American Kenpo Karate2) Yes! but it is some what infrequent3) Medium mostly. I did full contact with my Sensei a couple of times....boy did I hurt!

I really like sparring, as we all know, sparring is what helps us sharpen and hone our skills! One needs sparring as well as technique work, foot work, and time allotted for forms/kata. It really shows in your karate if you don't devote sufficient amount of time doing either one of these.

Watch out for Mcdojos if you mention the S word (sparring) it will make most "Masters" take another S word (not sparring) in their pants.

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"I come to you with only Karate - empty hands, I have no weapons; but should I be forced to defend myself, my principles, or my honor; should it be a matter of life or death, of right or wrong, then here are my weapons – Karate, my empty hands"

Wow, just quickly scanning the responses, it appears that most DO spar (in some form). I Teach RyuTe, though the system (and the majority of schools within it) does do sparring, it's (usually) of the Bogu type (full body protection, Head, gloves, chest protection). Strikes are full power, and “points” are only scored if/when the recipient is sufficiently “rocked” and/or knocked down. I don't include sparring in my own classes though. What I teach is limited to “self-protection”, which “sparring” would be counter-productive to. Though many would disagree, I don't feel that sparring adds anything to learning to protect one's self. The argument of learning to “take a punch” is BS. Sparring is a sport, there is no correlation to reality contained within it. When I was younger I enjoyed participating in it, but I had no illusions about it being anything but “playing”. Sparring has NO similarities to a Real confrontation. For “us”(in RyuTe), it doesn't allow for 90% of the technique's we practice, and actually trains the participant to perform actions contradictory to what RyuTe endorses. Although I don't condone student participation in sparring, I don't restrict it either. I've never encountered any discernible advantage obtained by those student's that do (participate in sparring), but I have (regularly) found that those student's (who do) have a more difficult time with the technique's and methodologies that we practice. Sparring, is a sport, that's all fine and good, but it has nothing to do with reality. To fall into the belief that it does, is delusional and miss-leading. As I stated, if you participate in it for the “sport”(entertainment) aspect, that's fine (and it is “fun”, LOL). But to believe it necessary to learning to protect one's self is “silly”.

Enshin KarateYou can't learn Enshin without contact. It just wouldn't work. Kind of like non contact BJJ...FAIL!Full contact sparring. No head punches. Shin guards compulsory, grappling gloves, cup and mouth guard optional. Chest guard compulsory for the girls. Enshin is different to other styles, in that there is a lot of grabbing and takedowns. Doing drills is great for learning the techniques, but it's not until you apply it at full speed and power do you learn how to really apply it. Coming from a background in a style that is very linear, and going to Enshin which is very angular, I've found that in sparring I tend to revert back to linear fighting. Sparring is allowing me to work through that. I do the drills perfectly, but go back to my old ways in sparring. Sparring is helping me improve that, and helping me to adjust to the speed at which you must react to make it work. Your skill isn't tested until it has been put against an uncooperative opponent who is fighting back with full speed and power.

Enshin KarateYou can't learn Enshin without contact. It just wouldn't work. Kind of like non contact BJJ...FAIL!Full contact sparring. No head punches. Shin guards compulsory, grappling gloves, cup and mouth guard optional. Chest guard compulsory for the girls. Enshin is different to other styles, in that there is a lot of grabbing and takedowns. Doing drills is great for learning the techniques, but it's not until you apply it at full speed and power do you learn how to really apply it. Coming from a background in a style that is very linear, and going to Enshin which is very angular, I've found that in sparring I tend to revert back to linear fighting. Sparring is allowing me to work through that. I do the drills perfectly, but go back to my old ways in sparring. Sparring is helping me improve that, and helping me to adjust to the speed at which you must react to make it work. Your skill isn't tested until it has been put against an uncooperative opponent who is fighting back with full speed and power.

Excellent to chat to another Knockdown Karate stylist. Welcome to the Forum

Maybe when you chatting about styles do as I do and mention all 3 Knockdown styles (Kyokushin, Ashihara & Enshin) as we all fight a similar way, we are closely related and we all enter competitions held by the each other Organisations.

Osu!

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A man is but the product of his thoughts what he thinks, he becomes.

Bogu is what we do aswell. Although we don't use gloves. We use the Anzen-Bogu as developed by Hisataka (founder of Koshiki - Shorinjiryu Kenkokan).

Originally Posted By: shujika

What I teach is limited to self-protection, which sparring would be counter-productive to. Though many would disagree, I don't feel that sparring adds anything to learning to protect one's self. The argument of learning to take a punch is BS. Sparring is a sport, there is no correlation to reality contained within it.[...]

I do agree that most sparring is sport. However there are certain parts of bogu-kumite that can be beneficial to self-defense. For example the coping with high adrenalin levels because you know your opponent in bogu-kumite is striking full-power, even to the face.The fact that you try to hit an opponent in a dynamic setting, unlike in most yakusoku-kumite.Hitting your opponent with bare fists and feet on a hard surface (the bogu surface is quite hard, especially the faceshield) conditions your 'weapons'; hand and feet. Bad techniques get punished by the hard surfaces of the bogu-equipement.

Originally Posted By: shujika

Sparring has NO similarities to a Real confrontation. [...]

Dealing with high adrenalin levels and being in a dynamic 'fight' are similar to a real confrontation. (It isn't copy-paste of a real confrontation, but can get close to it.)

Originally Posted By: shujika

Sparring, is a sport, that's all fine and good, but it has nothing to do with reality. To fall into the belief that it does, is delusional and miss-leading. As I stated, if you participate in it for the "sport"entertainment aspect, that's fine (and it is "fun", LOL). But to believe it necessary to learning to protect one's self is silly.

Fun: can be, I find it so. Necessary: no.Needed: a propper mindset. In my mind, during kumite, my opponent is trying to end me. It's up to me, to beat him to it.

My fists and feet are toughend by the bogu-kumite we practice. I know I can depend on them and my techniques in a real confrontation, where I might hit a hard part on my opponents body. (In contrast; some boxing champs made news with the ill-effects of always using boxing mitts.)

So my conclusion reads: Sparring can aid in dealing with real confrontations. It depends on how you train, both physically and mentally.